The Rift of Harmonious Dissonance
by SilverOnith
Summary: Ever since I became addicted, I've been looking for a way to breech reality, to blur the lines between fantasy and real life. Mildly insane with obsession, what seems like another failed attempt turns out to be more than I expected. Blatant Self-insert.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hey all! I know a few people are waiting with a passive intrest for 'Under New Management', but I seem to have lost my sense of 'crack' humor. I have plenty of stories and concepts hangning around here that are just begging to be developed properly, but I never really had the drive to go beyond one chapter. Not only that, but knowing myself i'd probably nitpick it to death. So, rather than actually tweaking it until it's nothing but a pile of untweakable fibers, I'm taking a more relaxed approach and posting whatever seems like a good idea. I must warn you though, this is a complete and total self-insert. Nearly everything in this story is true, except for the stuff that would be realistically impossible and too good to be true. (like people showing up out of nowhere, and awesome adventures and stuff). A lot of this stuff happens while i'm in my nocturnal schedule, and allowed to immerse myself completely in la-la land.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, save for myself, my thoughts, and my deluded hallucinations.

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I sighed quietly in frustration. The moon was glaring at me mockingly through the blinds, illuminating the room in it's unnatural white glow. Restless, I snuck out of bed, throwing on my pants and my shoes, silently creeping into the living room. I peered through the window, cursing the weather. It was beautiful outside. The moon was bright and nearly full, looking as if it were merely a cloudy afternoon rather than the darkness of the brink of midnight. But old man winter was being stubborn this year. The daffodills has just started to grow, and patches of green with tiny wildflowers peeked out of the bleak sepia of dead plantlife. And yet the old elemental geezer still refused to leave. It was only just 80 degrees this afternoon, any by dark it had plummeted to 20. I could already feel the niggling feeling in the back of my throat.

I already had gotten sick this winter, twice, and I had no wish to experiance it again. So rather than risk being lowered into a sickness induced coma for five days straight, I had to remain inside. Damnit.

When the night is like this, if I were alone, whole new worlds would be opened up to me. The moon seemed to enhance my imagination and dimension bending skills, and without it, I would feel as if I were withering away from the inside, the longing to escape to other worlds, making me feel restless and run-down. In other words, I liked to take trips into la-la land during the full moon.

I always loved doing that. Everything seemed real, yet insubstantial during those times. Like, at any moment, some otherworldy creature would skulk out of the shadows and sweep you away. As if anything could pierce and destroy our perception of 'reality', opening your mind to a whole different world. And not in that corny Matrix sort of way.

Heck, at one time, I had that feeling constantly during the days, and at school no less! To get to our history class we had to go into a little classrom made out of those temporary sheds. It just seemed so believeable that at one time, Janos Audron would come racing out of the sky and swoop down on me while I was crossing the courtyard. Perhaps Raziel was watching me from the shadows of the roof. I could have sworn I saw his eyes at one time. Maybe Kain was hiding in plain sight somewhere, reading my thoughts. I shudder every time I think of that last posibility. Every other minute, it seems like I have a miniature Vorador in my head pointing out innuendo and supplying my mind with images I'd rather forget. All of the other times it's like a physical manifestation of a sugar high, making me snicker at the stupidest things.

Then there were my own thoughts. He'd eviscerate me if he found out I was thinking of raising the pillars at some point in my life. And raising my own 'clan'. Well, maybe not the last part. I'd have to find trustworthy humans for that, and the world is pretty short on stock for the moment. Well, maybe other Legacy of Kain fans would, but I doubt they would leave thier lives to be (almost) religiously devoted to a single game, and practically live in it. It would eventually degenerate into a twisted parody of itself. There'd probably be midgets running around in chibi costumes as well. I shudderd at the thought of all of the horrible things people would do when they started to get bored. And if I let in any other kinds of 'vampires', the 'empire' would crumble. Most other fictional vampires were lustful, overdramatic pansies that played with thier food too much, got attached to them, and died with them. Or they were over emotional fools, immersed in thier morbid thoughts. Then there were the ones that were just plain animals.

I think too much. I think that's my problem.

And yet...

Call me crazy, but I can nearly feel it. It's tangible to me. Like, a vauge smell, or a weird feeling in the winds that keeps on whispering to me, calling me. As if to say: We are here.

Heck, even now I rested in a state between reality and fantasy. It's a nearly microscopically thin line that separates the two, and yet it's starting to blur.

There were just...little things...that kept on telling me it was possible. ANYTHING is possible. I knew that for sure. But I had yet to fully realize it.

It was one of those restless nights again. I paced the floor like a caged lion, wincing slightly every time the floor creaked. My cat sat by the window, her silliohette broken my the glare of her reflective eyes, the two green glowing orbs following my movements with a slight disintrest.

I was huffing with frustration on the inside.

_'Dammit! There has to be more to life than this! Isn't there something, anything I could do to make my life worthwile other than procreation? Which will probably never happen anyways? I mean, there has to be some sort of significant event that going to happen soon. I can feel it in my bones. But WHEN? I'm tired of waiting. Oh, so tired.'_

I rounded on my heel to the other side of the room.

'_I need to break out of here. Break out of this reality. How?'_

I stopped my pacing and lowered myself onto the couch, sighing deeply and scrubbing at my face with my hands. _'Is it never too much to ask if someone could do it for me for once? I've been good. A good, quiet little girl. Why can't the universe just grant me this one favor?'_

I stilled. A chill ran up my spine, speading out into a constant buzzing sensation throughout my body. It was that familiar call that I had always answered to, the one that settled into my very bones and beckoned to me. The calling of the 'other world'. Completely ignoring logical reason as to why I shoudn't, I just took up a sweater and stepped outside, briskly walking up to the front yard.

I stood in the middle of the mix of dead and newly grown grass, head tilted upward, soaking in the moon. The buzzing intensified, and my heart started beating a little faster. The air pressure seemed to change, and a strange, droning sound slowly filtered through my hearing.

_'Is this it?_' I thought, a little scrap of hope slowly growing in the back of my mind.

The wind picked up and chilled me, but I quelled my shivers. Right now I needed to focus. I closed my eyes, the moonlight shining right through my eyelids, and the sound intensified.

The droning quickly faded into a vauge ringing in my ears, and the wind stopped. I opened my eyes.

Nothing. Not even the slightest feeling in my gut, save for the last scraps of exhilaration from the quickly fading hope and excitement. Everything was stilled, and I was left, standing in the middle of my yard, in nothing but a night shirt, bike shorts, and a thin sweater, shivering periodically, staring at the moon.

_'You stupid lunatic.' _I thought bitterly. A moment of silence. Then... _'HAH! Get it? LUNA-tic? Heheh...'_

Okay, I might have been a _little_ nuts. I sighed, tearing my gaze away from the moon. Being that I was already out here, I went and sat on the front porch, noticing a chalk drawing that I made a few weeks ago of what _could_ have been considered a mural. It was an Ancient, hefting the Soul Reaver, locked in battle with a fearsome dragon. I had a thing for dragons too, but I know that they already exist. How do you think they became a widespread concept all over the world? Especially during ancient times, when civilizations were seperate from one another? They're either hiding, or they became extinct during medaevil times.

Surrounding the mural was a network of pillar symbols, glyphs, elements, and clans that all connected together in one way or another. I studied the picture in the moonlight, the pale glow making it look different than it did in broad daylight.

I had a sudden foreboding feeling settling in my stomach, and my heart seemed to pause for a moment. I took a deep breath, trying to will it away. It could have something to do with the fact that I hadn't had anything to eat all day except for a few cups of esspresso.

I was startled and jumped slightly when I heard some rustling noises, and a dull clattering sound. I turned around in time to see one of the larger stray cats dash away from the fallen trashbin.

I sighed in relief, the tension flowing away. I didn't want to think about robbers or rapists, especially when I didn't have my knife with me. I turned back around to look at the mural again, but this time I found two black smudges. As my eyes adjusted to the shadows of the porch, I realized, it wasn't a shadow, or even some cryptic symbol of a ghost.

I followed it upward, until...

_**'HOLY ASSMONKEYS! IT THAT A FREAKING A-'**_

It was upon me in a heartbeat, not even giving me a chance to finish my thoughts.

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A/N: Yep. It all happened. All true. Except after that last gut feeling went away, I went inside and wrote about it. Yeah, I'm nuts, I admit to it, but aren't we all? It's only a matter of degree. With most of the stuff I've been writing recently, I've been relating it to real life. It makes it seem a bit more solid, and easier to get into. At one time, I compared the 'Change' to having the flu. But I passed out before I could describe the whole thing. By the way the weather keeps on fluctuating over here, it won't be long before i'm writing another one.

Some Reviews would be nice. Nearly all of my imaginary friends have faded away due to lack of feedback. Please help to bring them back! They were so young...

You know the drill. R&R. The might of the Hylden cookie complels you!!


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Alrighty then! The experiment continues. More adventures of the mentally screwed over fangirl. Again, most of the stuff in here is what I could, would, or have done, so we'll see whether or not i'm a living mary-sue. It would actually be kind of cool though.

Thanks to Azura Soul Reaver for the review! You'll see it soon, but you won't know what it is until much later.

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My eyes flew open, the deafening crack of the door nearly breaking down making me jump in my foggy half-sleep. '_I have to get the door fixed. With a lock. Wait...nevermind the lock. I'll just go live in a cave.'_

The intruder, which I knew was one of my two forced roomates (the other one being my little 4 year old sister), rushed about the room, looking for something. I saw out of the corner of my eye that she stopped to fiddle with something on my side of the bookshelf next to the bed.

"Would you mind not touching my stuff please? It's bad enough that I want to kill you." I mumbled non-commitedly through the bunched up blanket hiding my face.

The little dragon figurine was put back, and she rushed right back out, leaving the door open and the closet light on, the room cluttered with all of her upturned stuff. I gave up loathing her for a long time now. It was pointless. So I just packed up what meager things I had, leaving only a few trinkets, and accepted the fact that the human race was royally screwed because of people like her.

I often imagined that I was something else, if only to escape the impending doom that was to befall the humans at thier own hands. In fact, as far as I can recall, it's been way too many years since humans have been killed by something other than humans.

I sighed, burrowing deeper into the blankets, attempting to fall back to sleep. The door was left open, and the ruckus from the kitchen filtered through no matter how covered my ears were. Sighing, I gave up. I'd have to try and sleep tomorrow. Usually I would attempt to sleep during the day to avoid everybody, but because they couldn't see me studying, they often thought me a lazy slob who parties all night and sleeps away valuable daylight. I did my chores. I studied. Heck, I was on the verge of a small odd job by selling tattoo commissions. I had even gotten connections to someone who knew a lot of people in the military, who were young, careless, and all too willing to toss money around.

I stumbled into the kitchen, lured by the scent of cooking bacon. It was already gone, all that was left was the remains of potato and eggs. Typical. I don't think i'll be able to eat today anyway. That tickling in the back of my throat that had started the other night had grown into a dry spot, making me cough periodically.

'_The other night...'_

My eyes went wide, remembering what had happened. My mind raced, and the various voices of reason (more like unreason) chattered excitedly at the possibilities. I shook my head, attempting to silence them. It was a dream, nothing more. I'm just a deluded human, living in a doomed world. Going insane just as much as the next guy. Nothing more.

'_Boy does that sound familiar!'_

I sunk into the couch, watching all of the adults leave. Typical. They all leave me with the kids. But I don't really mind. The little one is easilly distracted by the TV, and as long as I kept her and the insane brat separate, I wouldn't have a hard time.

Right now the annoying one was with me in the living room, while the little one was glued to the boob toob in the bedroom.

"Hey, what happened to your arm?"

"Huh?"

"There." She reached over and prodded my upper arm. Pain lanced through my entire right side, and I hissed loudly through my teeth.

"Would you stop that!" I snapped, cradling the abused appendage. '_I didn't know I had that..._'

"It looks weird." She commented, turning back to her corny teenage sitcom.

I looked down to the source of the pain, which now lingered at a dull throb. It was two mildly concerning bruises that wrapped around my arm, like stripes. _'Hey, they kind of look like...'_

I shook my head. '_Dream. It was a dream. You probably slept the wrong way again.'_

Despite the insistance that it was a dream, I hesitantly reached up and felt my neck. Nothing. I sighed, slightly dissapointed and extremely relieved at the same time.

_'Seriously, if it was what you think it was, which was actually a dream, you'd be dead. Quit frolicking in the clouds like a coward and come down to face your pathetic lot in life.'_

God I can be so depressing. If I wasn't already dead inside I might have committed suicide to escape myself.

_'__**You can escape me no more than you can escape yourself.**__'_

Wow. That's like, one of the few instances that the old squid was making sense through all of that boasting. Peh. Whatever. I'll move on. I'll survive. I won't die. Not yet anyway. As far as I knew, I was practically immortal. Death didn't concern me in the least. It just meant that I would lose the body and mind that I had inhabited for a few years.

The good news: I'll live. The bad news? I'll live. My family had a habit of living dangerously close to a century. Heck, Great grandad made it to his 90s before he kicked it. Why? His wife died. He died of heartache, not a heart attack. My dad is predicted to live far beyond that. Damn, he'd probably outlive me. That's if everybody would quit stressing him out and giving him blood pressure problems.

Well, regardless, I had to do something with the time, and getting lost in la-la land every other second was probably not the best way to spend it. But on the other hand...

I pulled out my laptop and started drabbling away. What was life without imagination anyway?

_'Typical western society, that's what.'_ True, true.

This time it was a little drabble about what would happen if my roomate got stuck in Nosgoth.

It lasted for about a paragraph.

Absently, I took out a sharpie and started another tattoo on the back of my hand. This time it was Dimension. I was trying to learn something from the pillars. So far I convinced myself I could talk to trees, and the wildlife liked to follow me around enough as it is. After a few epiphanies, I convinced myself I learned something about nature. I had already carved the symbol into a patch of tightly packed sand in the yard, so I decided that perhaps I could add the others over time.

Since then, I had a sudden tolerance for spiders. Heck, right now I was housing a clan of spiders (appropriately nicknamed the Zephonim) that grew to about the size of a large walnut. But don't tell the other houseguests that. Dad was cool about it though. Whenever he saw them, he always caught them in the middle of doing thier jobs: devouring the smaller organisims. Although Zephon himself was long gone, I was still picking his children out of my hair. It was sad this year though. There were only two who chose to stay in the house, and one of them I had to put outside because it was so weak. I liked those guys. They left mice by the front door like puppy dogs.

I stood up and stretched, careful of my bruised arm. What I wasn't prepared for though, was the pain that raced down my spine and shoulder as I cracked it. I grunted, sinking back into the couch. The faint memory of being tackled came back to me. But this wasn't the blunt pain of a bruise. It was sharp and tender. Like broken flesh.

The other one was occupied with her show, and didn't notice my slight lurch as I made my way to the bathroom.

I lifted the back of my shirt up to my neck, looking over my shoulder to see the mirror. I inhaled sharply through my nose. '_Boy does that look painful._'

Running down my back were long, red, shallow scratches, which had already scabbed over. There were a few puncture wounds and cuts in my left shoulder, which had opened up, blood slowly seeping out from the barely sealed flesh. '_What in the seven realms...?'_

I was startled when the bathroom door banged open, the removable rack that was hung over the door catching the frame, making it sound like splintering wood, much like a toned down version of our bedroom door.

"What happened to you?! Should I call Papa?" She looked actually worried. '_Congratulations, pathetic shell of a human being, you managed to show some kind of concern for someone other than yourself.'_

"It's nothing." I said flatly, replacing my shirt and adjusting it.

"How did you get it? Does it hurt?" She reached out to touch me, and I stepped away, glaring at her as a warning.

I shook my head. "I was in my tree last night. I stumbled while I was getting down. And it won't hurt as much as you when I'm through with you! What the hell are you doing, barging into the bathroom anyway? Didn't anybody teach you to knock? What if I was on the can? Or, god forbid, screwing my brains out?"

"I needed some tylenol. My stomach hurts! And who would screw you anyway? Raziel?" She scoffed.

"This coming from the one who loves the pug-faced rabbit. And I like Rahab! That melodramatic chicken can jump back into the abyss for all I care!"

I rolled my eyes and swept by her, disgusted. She wasn't even old enough to have her period, and thinks she requires painkillers for something as simple as a stomachache. She makes a bruise sound like a shattered bone or something. I also regretted letting her in on my obsession. She's a Turel lover. I don't see why though. Not only does he look like he got his face smashed in by an angry housewife weilding a comically oversized frying pan, but I doubt his ears and skin are the softest things in the world. Not only that, but it's usually implied that he's too obsessed with either being a lapdog, or overthrowing his superiors to care about anything else.

I often imagined what it would be like if she ended up in Nosgoth. During the Empire. I even wrote a few stories about it. She was either murdered or traumatized in the end. Although there was one rare instance where she actually cleaned up her act and started being tolerable.

I decided the children wouldn't kill eachother for a while, and stepped outside. Maybe if I had some time to think I might come up with something. Perhaps a way to get out of this obsession.

I headed straight for my tree. It was all by itself next to the house. There was a stack of discarded concrete blocks and old bricks that I used to get up there. From my pertch, I could see both in front and behind the house, making it the perfect spot to keep a lookout. The four main limbs came together at the base, one of them slightly lower than the other, making a nice little seat.

I settled myself in, grateful that when I leaned back, the tree supported me by my sides rather than my back, although I still had to be careful with my shoulder. Now with a proper jacket on, the cold didn't affect me as much. I stared into the forest across the street, thinking.

_'I've never really gotten into any one particular thing this much. Even my six month obsession with Castlevania was eventually quelled with a quick scan through the history books.'_

I kept my eyes on the tree line, the lack of leaves making it easier to see anything that might have been there. I don't know why I watched it so closely. It was something I always did since I first thought of other mythical creatures that could be hiding in the shadows, a mystery to society. Of course, I always supposed that maybe Videogame characters could be walking around in plain sight as well, but I never took it so seriously until now.

A loudmouth crow broke me out of my thoughts, startling me. It was in the tree next to mine, staring me down. I returned it's inquisitive, plotting stare.

"I know you're there." I said quietly, narrowing my eyes at it. It cocked it's head to the side. "Don't play dumb. I know you're there. You're probably just waiting. Waiting for us to destroy ourselves. So you can take the spoils. It would be nice if you could show up a little earlier. We obviously can't handle it properly." I hissed, crossing my arms.

The crow, thoroughly confused, squawked and fluttered away. He probably smelled roadkill.

_'Okay, that's it. I'm nuts. God, sometimes you scare me Victoria. Talking to birds? Okay, I can understand if you were asking it the meaning of life or some other philosophical bulldinky, but really, suspisious interrogation?! What were you thinking?'_

What? It's well known that crows are spies.

_'So you were asking if Vorador would come to the rescue and save the world from overpopulation?'_

You know me so well. What I would give to die by something other than a lack of a nearly useless dyed paper. They would save us. Save us from ourselves. I smirked.

'_(sigh) Snap out of it. You sound like a borderline religious nutcase, and sulking like a sterotype isn't going to help you. Before you know it, you'll be cutting yourself and wearing black just because you think it's the color of your soul. Honestly, I wouldn't be able to stand you if you started that. Now just quit- ... Hey, what was that over there?'_

My eyes were glued to the far left of the forest, nearly in the backyard of the house next to it. I couldv'e sworn I saw something. Another flash of movement had me staring far out in the distance. My heart skipped a beat.

'_Be careful what you wish for...'_

Regardless of the fact that I didn't care if I died, I still feared getting there, and the pain usually associated with the process. I shivered a little. My mind was sulying me wih imagesThe cold finally pierced my jacket. It was getting dark, the sun briefly painted the horizon red, before everything dimmed into a flat, dark grey.

I watched for a few minutes more, before reluctantly climbing out of the tree. I couldn't feel my fingers. I gave the forest a few glances and double takes, thinking I might have seen something else. I headed into the backyard to circle around the house a few times. Maybe I could catch one of the stray cats. The faint feeling of being watched loomed over me.

"YOU!"

I spun around, properly frightened. What I saw only served to intensify it.

It was a...demon of some kind? It looked like maybe it might have been a gargoyle. Most of it's snout was missing flesh, the teeth and jagged nasal cavity exposed in a permanent sneer, only one, long and delicate fang remaining, it's sibling broken down to a useless nub. It had a crown of exposed bony ridges and horns, the skin around them completely shredded. It's claws were just as skinless, and wickedly sharp looking. It looked pretty starved, not too far away from Raziel if he still had his organs in the right place. There were a few loops of faded metal around it's arms and legs, and a few on it's horns. They might have been gold at one time. He wore a rope necklace, with an extremely worn out metal pendant on it. Whatever was on it was long gone, but it maintained a vauge shape. But what awed me the most, was it's _wings_. They were very large, and magnificent, even if they were only shadows of what they might have been. The membrane was shredded, barely holding onto the frames, and yet they looked like they might still carry it's owner, though not very far. The creature's presence spoke of faded glory.

What held me in that constant peak of trembling fear though, was the eyes. They were fierce, hungry, rage driven, and lacking patience at the moment. That, and they were dead. Lifeless. It chilled me to even think of them, let alone stare into them. They held me to the spot.

'_Goddamit! What are you doing? RUN!'_ Maybe it wants something? It gave me a murderous glare. _'Okay, maybe running away from what is obviously a predator is not the right thing to do.'_

"YOU!" It pointed a faded claw at me. "YOU DID THIS TO ME!"

My heart clenched and stilled for a few seconds, stealing my breath. When it started beating again, I still didn't breath. '_What did I do? I think I would remember something like that. I don't even think i'm capable of something like that. It's obviously mad. Crazed. Psycho. What the hell do you do when there's an extremely pissed off demon staring you in the face, obviously intent on your demise?'_

Nothing. That's what. I started breathing again, and slowly lowered myself to the ground, keeping my eyes on it the entire time. It looked rather angry at this.

"What the hell are you doing? Get up and fight me!"

I inhaled through my nose, pursing my lips. '_Does it look like I can fight?'_ I resisted the urge to grin ridiculously. I had a horrible reaction to being cornered, or any form of nervousness or panic: I smiled. My mom was so pissed off at me for that, before she realised that I couldn't help it.

"COWARD! You had no problem with killing me before!" It boomed, getting more frustrated by the second.

_'So I killed him aparently. That would explain a lot about his appearance. But why would I kill something that is obviously beyond death? Wouldn't I know that killing something like that would come back to haunt me later?'_

Still, I said nothing. Just looked at it, hoping that I wasn't showing anything more than fear and confusion.

"GRAAAAGH!" It roared, snatching me up by the throat and slamming me against the house.

"You..." It hissed through clenched teeth. It was shaking with rage now, and raised its claws. I closed my eyes, and waited for it, bracing myself.

I heard the nearly inaudible whip of claws slicing through air, before pain exploded across my left cheek.

There were three parallel slashes running from my ear down along my jaw.

"Hey, are you okay? I heard something!" The back door creaked open, and it dropped me, shooting into the air with one stroke of it's powerful wings, and hhad dissapeared in a matter of seconds.

I crumbled into an undignified heap against the side of the house, panting, trying to regain my breath. I composed myself quickly enough to hide my bleeding scratches with my arm.

"What happened?"

"I did something very stupid." I replied faintly, my voice a bit ragged. "But i'm fine. You should go back inside. It's dark." It was complete nightfall by now.

"What did you do?" She was grinning.

"I decided to fall out of a tree." I said, slightly sarcastic. She needed to leave. Now.

_'God I hate doing this..._'

"Hey, I bet the kid is messing with something, I heard noises in our room."

"What?! that little..." She gave off unintelligable grunts and muffled whines, storming back into the house. I knew I was probably going to return to a huge fight, but right now I needed to collect myself.

_'Now that I think about it, he did look a little familiar...'_

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A/N: Yes, I talk to birds. There was a hawk this one time that told me his opinion about time. It sounded a whole lot like some deleted diolouge from the first soul reaver. He didn't know what time was. He said that all he knew was Now. Quote: "We who reside outside the rim of time dwell not within the past or the present: There is only the now." That's what the squid said. Maybe the developers know more than we think? Although, I don't outright accuse the crows of being Vorador's spies. I just wave to them and think about it in the back of my head. I bet you do it too sometimes. I bet a Hylden posessed cookie that at least one other person has done it.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Several things have happened that kinda cut down on my writing time (read the end note for a better explanation). For now, I'm privately celebrating in my head. Apart from that deleted CASTLE-FUKIN-VANIA fiction, this is the longest story I curently have here (if only by one chapter). Time to break out the noise makers, a six-pack of Tru-Blood, and the random mariachi band that likes to appear out of nowhere and play at the most inappropriate times! I also realize I may have forgotten the disclaimer in the last chapter, so I'll just say that the one in the first chapter applies to all others, except when I'm hit by a silly inspiration to come up with another one.

Thanks to my reviewers! You guys are seriously the ones who keep me going.

Azura Soul Reaver: Thanks again! ...You have portraits?! And a map!?...GIMMIE!

DemonicDragonMutt: Thank you. Yeah. Same here. Unless they come out with another game soon, we'll all be stuck daydreaming...

Fatala: Good! Now all I have to do is make sure that you stay interested! XD Hopefully, with time, we'll both see where in the heck this thing is going. *has no idea herself*

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"No! You've got it all wrong! It was the _Hylden_ who gave the _Vampires_ that curse!" I sighed, exasperated, shifting my seat on the ground, and picking another sharp sticker seed out of my shoe.

"Oh! I remember now!" She exclaimed.

"Okay, let's review. What do you remember?" She had a habit of getting distracted easilly, and usually forgot the really important things.

She scrunched her face up, concentrating. "Um... so there was the vampires and the hylden. Right? And there was peace and all that. Then the squid thingy started talking to them, and told them to go and kill off the hylden. And...um...the-uh..." She trailed off, messing around with her piece of bamboo.

I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling another headache coming on. _'(sigh) Oh that stupid little...' _"Let's try this again. The elder squid started talking to the Vampires, and made them into religious nutjobs. Then he told them to start a huge holy war because the Hylden went against what they believed in. Kind of like the wars between the alien covenant and the humans. Because these races were so advanced, they were trapped in a bit of a draw for a few thousand years. So to end it, both sides started developing super weapons. For the Hylden, it was the Mass. You remember that right? From Blood Omen 2? In the Hylden city?"

She got all excited. "That thing that-"

"The huge creature?"

"Yeah! And it-"

"The heart looking thingy?"

"Uh huh! With the-"

"Yep. It was like a brainless animal, but it had a lot of untapped power."

"Wait-a-minute...Oh! You mean _that_ thing!"

"What other huge heart-like creature could you be talking about? What in the pillars have you been playing?! Anyway, to controll the damned thing, they built the device. It would allow them to order the creature to wipe out everything except for them. The Vampires' superweapon was the pillars, and from then it was a race to see who would finish first."

I fiddled around with my 'sword', which was just a piece of bamboo about an arm's-length, split down the middle untill the very last section, making a handle. Me and my reluctant roomate had been playfighting to relieve some stress. She had wanted to throw in some acting, and I charged her with making up the scenario. Of course, the unimaginative little git that she was, suggested something that we did last summer, when my cousins from alabama were visiting. It required way too many people, and it had the overused concept of 'light vs. dark'. No way. Dragon people? Nope, that was my idea, and I didn't want her to completely mangle it. So I had to break down the story making process for her. Then we made a complete turn around, and she suggested Vampires and Hylden. It was the most brilliant thing she had said all day, apart from admitting that her plastic horses and knick-knacks served absolutely no purpose.

Although, when she started making up the story, she completely raped the cannon, and the very laws of logic. She started spewing crap about a Hylden calling backup, mobbing the vampire (which happened to be my character) and turning it into one of them. And then she had the gall to say she had no idea as to why the fight started in the first place.

So here I was, giving out a lesson on 'a brief history of Nosgoth', usually having to repeat myself fifteen frikkin' times because she was too distracted banging her staff on the ground like a brainless idiot.

_'Why do I even put up with this?!'_

"So, you see why they hate eachother's guts?"

"Yep."

I sighed, relieved. I really wanted to speed this up, so I just gave a quick outline of what was supposed to happen, and just what time period it was.

"Alright, so you know what's going to happen, right?"

She nodded. "Right."

We stood there for a few seconds, before she got distracted by a tree. While she was standing there, picking at the bark, I took the opportunity to sneak off.

It was nighttime, and I felt completely in my element. I started sneaking around the small buildings in our backyard, peeking around corners, sinking into shadows, and playing small games of cat and mouse around the sheds. There was a really tiny tin roof shed, that used to house the water pump. There was a slightly larger metal shed that had the lawn mower in it off to the side, and the biggest shed sat just behind the pump house.

I had to be careful when I moved from behind a building, because there was a slightly smaller version of a streetlamp on one side of the yard with a recently changed lightbulb, and a slightly older spotlight coming from the other side. If I was caught in the light, my shadow would spread across the entire yard, and she would see me.

Every time she went around another corner, she jumped out and shouted a weak warcry, swinging her staff wildly, expecting me to be there. It only made it easier for me, because I always knew exactly where she was.

I was highly amused and exhilarated, the thrill of the chase (although slightly hampered by the fact that I was toying with someone who's I.Q was comparable to a bowl of gravy) making everything sharper, more vivid.

A slightly giddy feeling welled up in my chest, and I suppressed the urge to giggle to myself.

I was actually _hunting._

_'Who's the Vampire?'_

I'm the Vampire.

_'Who's the Vampire!?'_

I'm the Vampire!

_'That's right.'_

I made a wide arc around her, crouching low to the ground, keeping the noise to a minimum.

I could just about hear the announcer guy from the National Geographic TV special.

_'The wolf stalks it's prey, sometimes following it for days before striking.'_

Heheh. Cute. Wolf.

I was no wolf. I could have been one, if it wasn't for the fact that I knew I was a Dragon at heart.

_'You fantasy-based nutjob, you!'_

Heart pounding and breath barely contained, I snuck closely behind her, following her silently. She stopped suddenly, just as I took a step, crushing dry leaves and dead grass beneath my feet.

I held my breath, hoping she didn't hear me. I saw her shadow turn around, and I made a run for it, dashing behind a tree before she could round the corner. I knew that she probably heard what general direction I went in, so I slowly made my way to the side of the house, where the spotlights couldn't touch me, and sank into the shadows behind the air conditioning unit. I smothered my heavy breathing as she approached, trying to hide my presence.

She followed my path, but walked right by me and into the front yard, while I was hiding in plain sight at her feet.

_'So my dad really was a ninja...Who'da thought...?'_

Grinning slyly, I rose from my spot and dashed into the backyard, glancing behind me and tittering to myself at her foolishness.

Here is where I would insert that cryptic statement about how I was the fool. Which isn't too far from the truth, actually.

Out of breath, I stumbled back behind the largest shed, giggling freely now. Not looking where I was going, I backed up behind another corner, and slammed into something rigid. Before I could turn around, a hand clamped over my mouth and yanked me forcefully into the cramped darkness of the old pumphouse.

I inhaled sharply through my nose, supressing a shout of suprise. My panic bubbled at the bottom of my gut, thretening to overwhelm me.

"Don't. Move." Someone rasped from behind me, pulling me tightly to them.

My heart hammered in my chest, and I could just barely hear my roomate's shouts of surrender floating in from outside. I jumped slightly in his grasp when I heard her scream, and his hand trightened over my mouth.

There was a deafening silence, save for the thundering of blood in my ears.

After a maddeningly long amount of time, I calmed down enough to think of some kind of action. I slowly reached for my jacket pocket, wrapping my fingers around the handle of my four inch flip-knife, silently thanking myself for leaving it opened.

I had gotten it at christmas from my father, so I wouldn't have to use his knives whenever I wanted to cut down a few stalks of bamboo for play weapons or crafts. I had always kept it with me ever since the attack by that strange demon, and I always left it open. Plenty of things could happen in the few seconds I would be afforded to open it. Better safe than sorry.

I gripped it firmly, before pulling back and quickly sinking it into (what I hoped was) my attacker's side with a hollow thump.

He released me immediately, grunting in pain. When I was free, I jerked the knife to the side before pulling it out, hoping to slow him down some, and bolted out the open doorway.

I refused to be one of the dumb broads from the horror films who died early because of stupidity.

"No! Wait! Don't go out there!" He shouted after me, but I ignored him. I didn't look back.

I went around the side of the house, heading for the front yard. I went off to the side, and into the neighbors' front yard, before dashing across the street, and into the thick forests.

I mentally smacked myself._ 'You dumbass! What if his buddies are hiding in there! What if you trip? They're way faster than you and you know it!'_

I ignored the nagging voice in the back of my head, way too scared to think about little details like that. I felt the previously warm blood coating my hand start to dry, and the cool, pre-spring winds whipped at my face as I ran. I stumbled a few times on the uneven ground, feeling every little twinge and pull of tendon and muscle as I refused to slow, small cuts and bruises gathering on my legs from the dry underbrush.

My lungs burned with the demand of air, the dry spot in the back of my throat breaking out into a full irritation, threatening to stall me with coughing.

I could hear something behind me, and I was tempted to glance back.

_'No! Just keep running!'_

After a bit, the strain became too great, and my full-blown sprint turned into a sloppy jog.

I finally broke through the other side of the forest and into the street, heading straight for another yard. I ran into the side of another house, a dull thud going up the side of the wall as I collapsed against it. My heavy breathing gave way to a hacking cough, and my vision blurred slightly, exaustion looming over me.

Still painfully alert from the fading adrenaline rush, my ears picked up something coming from the tree line. I snapped my head up just in time to see a figure making it's way across the street, it's movement hindered slightly.

Eyes wide with panic, I scrambled to my feet, and attempted to keep running. Limbs laden with exaustion, I made a misstep, twisting my foot underneath me as it landed. I crumbled to the ground in a heap, shaking, hissing through my teeth.

Watching with ever-growing panic, I tried to drag myself out into the open yard as the figure had gotten closer and closer.

There was a sudden rush of air above me, and large, sharp talons dug into my sides, plucking me up from the ground.

He ran right into the middle of the yard, his features plain now. Pale skin, strangely bright, gold eyes...

_'He's not human, is he?'_

As the surrounding area slowly got smaller and I was lifted into the air, I could hear his shouts as he called after me.

"You fool!"

His other exclamations were lost in the rushing wind, and the deafaning screech that sounded above me.

_'Okay. That __**was**__ stupid. If you would have thought about it just a bit longer, you would have noticed that perhaps if he was trying to hurt you, he would have done so by then. Did it ever occur that maybe he was hiding from something? And that maybe he might have been doing you some kind of favor by pulling you out from the open so that one of these things couldn't get you? What is this thing any-...Oh my.'_

I craned my head and looked up, gasping slightly as I was greeted by the sight of a large, plated underside, the talons digging into me coated with scales.

_'Oh you are so screwed.'_

What do you mean by that?!

_'I'm not the one who's about to be mauled by a mythical creature!'_

Mythical?! It's real! You're staring at it right now! And for your information, WE are ROYALLY screwed. There is no possible way for you to get out of this either. If you didn't forget, we're the same damn person!

_'Then why are you talking like you're a separate person?'_

Why are YOU talking like a separate person?!

A brief realization dawned on my face. Another thuderous roar issued from above, and I winced, waiting for the ringing in my ears to subside.

_'Wow. What a great time for an epiphany...'_

Shaddap. You're not supposed to exist. Right now, I had to concentrate on a way out of this.

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A/N: WARNING- EXTREMELY LONG RANT AHEAD! As I said, there's been a lot going on lately. The horrible people who are living with us (who are factual people I mentioned in one of the previous chapters) are deciding to cheese it. They finally figured out that they overstayed thier welcome, and have started detatching thier mandibles from our veins. Right now they owe us over 4000 dollars in expenses (it all came out of our savings, which was supposed to buy us a few houses to start our real estate buisness). This chick lost her job, still owes us money, refuses to let her new girlfriend alone long enough to go to work, dumps her stupid kid on us, and still has the gall to ask for pocket money so she could go clubbing. (shakes head) They also recently found out that they have given eachother both types of HIV. _'Personally? They totally deserved it.' _We're still waiting for my parent's results, and if they turn up positive, me and my sister have to get tested as well. If we all have it, we have the rights to sue them for all that they owe us and more.

It would also mean that thier diabetic, (possibly misdiagnosed) ADHD kid has it too. _'They still deserved it. Effin' moochers.'_ Right now we're all waiting with strained patience for the new girlfriend's mother to arrive with the truck to drag them back to Texas. _'If I find out my freaking cat has HIV, I'll be commiting triple homicide.'_

Another delay was the huge thunderstorm that was here recently. A lightning bolt hit the tin roof of the pump house out back (it made a cool looking scorch mark) and completely fried our modem, cutting off the internet untill we could get a new one.

I also got a little lazy, as the creative spirit was pretty much devoured by the stress of making sure these people don't help themselves and take any freebies on the way out.

Sorry to rattle on with all of this bad news, but at least I had a legitimate reason for not updating!


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Many thanks, eternal grattitude, and a million hugs for the reviews! Please, tell me if it sucks. I'm flying by the seat of my pants, and it's easy to lose focus and quality, being that there's nothing really planned for the long run (well, maybe a vauge idea, but that's all). My excuse THIS time is actually pretty awesome. Right now I'm working with WickedDavieBoy on a fan-made Defiance sequal. You can find the link to his youtube account (which has trailers and other awesome stuff from the project) on my profile (since they don't allow links in the actual stories anymore). I still have yet to submit my stuff, but it should be seen in the next video he posts (I'm in charge of storyboards, and we've already found a voice actor, so the first cutscene should be up once I get off my butt and finish it. XD)

On to the reviews!

Azura Soul Reaver: Thanks! Heheh, don't worry about it. If I ever get awesome stuff like that, i'd probably make it myself. Like that one dream I have of raising a miniature pillar shrine in my yard (I'd do it, if only I had the materials!)

DemonicDragonMutt: You'll see in the next chapter. In fact, if my calculations are correct, you'll see it in the very first paragraph. :D

Tonnerre: Whoa. Witty? Clever? Talent?! *blushes and shuffles feet* T-thank you! *Grabs into a bear hug*

Namless Daydreamer: HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! *gives cookie*

Enjoy yourselves!

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I tried to take a deep breath to calm myself down, but the talons in my sides made the act rather painful, doing nothing to soothe my frayed nerves.

_'How are you going to get yourself out of this one?!'_

By doing absolutely nothing.

'_What?!'_

The path of least resistance.

'_What the hell are you talking about?! You sound like an old guy from those horrible kung-fu movies! Do something! ANYTHING!'_

Doing nothing counts as doing something.

'_You're crazy!'_

No, I'm eccentric. First of all, there's nothing I can do right now. I make him let go somehow, and I plummet to my death. Not only that, but this is probably a predator of some kind. Poking alligators didn't do Steve Irwin any good, how do you think it'll turn out with one about ten times larger, and way more agile?! And if it reads minds, you probably insulted it by calling it a mythical creature.

'_...You probably insulted it by compaing it to an alligator.'_

Shaddap. Whatever the case, I don't want to piss it off. All I have to do is wait.

_'For what?'_

An opportunity. Maybe it's taking me back to it's den or something. Once we get there I should be able to do something without losing any vital organs.

I tried to focus on the ground whizzing by below, perhaps to see where we were heading. My vision wasn't exactly the best, and I rarely bothered to remember where everything was being that I couldn't drive a car, but I knew for a fact that I was far away from any recognizable territory.

I drifted off into a sort of mindless state, not really thinking, but not really sleeping either. The talons still poked me if I breathed too deeply or tried to shift in thier grasp.

Suddenly, the creature jolted and screeched, sharply turning out of it's smooth, low flightpath. I was shaken out of my dazed state, and frankly, scared shitless. It didn't help my fears when I realized the blood seeping into my shirt wasn't mine.

I twisted around in the loosening grasp of the creature, having a minor panic attack when I saw a large, silver bolt embedded into it's left breast, the blood running down it's arm and onto me.

'_...The hell?...'_

I felt us starting to sink from the sky. I snapped my head forward when I heard it's wings brush the trees.

"OH SHI-" *whump!*

Again, I couldn't finish my exclamation before my skull connected with a rather hefty branch. The fact that I hadn't really slept in a while didn't help my struggle to stay concious. I gave in, letting the world fade to gray, and eventually black.

________________________________

We did discuss the plan. Stay hidden. Take them down one by one. Be quiet. Be quick. Keep one alive for interrogation. Every man for themselves.

I was relatively calm, squished into the wall on the far corner of the bed. The illusion could only affect so many people at a time, and me being the only human in the group made me the one to go without. They did take pity on me though, and gave me the corner which was farthest from the door. All anyone would see was a stack of swords placed on the bed. So long as I didn't move, I would go unnoticed.

My eyes were wide open, though, as I watched group after group of red-garbed mercenaries flood the hall, and pass right by the door. The escalating screams from thier victims indicated that they were ordered to clear the building.

The screams were getting closer now.

One of them slipped into the room, and was carefully surveying it for signs of life. I saw a few others drag out someone who was hiding in the room across the hall, and execute them brutally. I gripped my weapon a little tighter. Now I was nervous.

Those hardened, emotionless eyes landed on the bed, and it aproached, sword raised. It drew it's arm back to put some force behind the swing, and I flinched, bringing my sword up to block it.

It stopped, and tilted it's head in the imitation of a curious expression. I felt someone grab my ankle in a warning. It narrowed it's eyes, before bringing it's sword up again in a feign, and again, I moved to block the swing that would never come.

It shook it's head having seen me, and placed the tip of the blade to my chest, taking aim. I tried to cover myself in a pathetic attempt at blocking it, but it just deftly nudged my arms out of the way with the flat of the sword, before pulling back and striking.

There was absolutely no time to think. I had only just begun to consider blocking again, but I was dumbstruck and frozen in fear, unable to take any action in the split second that I was given. A sense of shameful helplessness flickered in the back of my mind as the tip broke my skin.

A dulled pain exploded in my chest, as the sword sunk into me with a hollow thump. The blade slipped between the bones and pierced the heart, the faint, cold sensation leaving just as quickly as it came.

I hissed, curling in on myself. I gripped the wound, feelling the hot blood gush between my fingers like tiny rivers.

"Oh...really? ...No way..." I breathed in disbelief, blood welling up in my throat, before blacking out.

__________________________________________

My eyes snapped open.

That odd, disjointed feeling came over me. My head was completely empty, the usual characters that chatted endlessly were suddenly silent. All I could feel was my heart, pushing against my ribs, trying to assure it's existance and functionality. There was a bruised sensation, that I distanty recognized as a shadow of the wound. I lay still, feeling the rest of my body come back to life, all of my previous scrapes and bruises flaring into existance, still dully aching. I wallowed in the deepening stillness of death.

My lungs burned, reminding me that I required oxygen to function properly, and I took in an agonizingly slow breath, feeling the broken skin along my sides protest.

My eyes started to scream for attention as well, and I barely remembered how to blink.

Deciding that it was safe, my mind sprung back to life.

_'...Wow. That was...wow.'_ I thought quietly after a long period of silence. This had happened before. But it was never really this serious.

You see, what just happened was actually a dream. A frighteningly realistic one that left physical influences just like in the horror movies, but still a dream. I've 'died' before. But like i've mentioned, it was never this 'serious'.

The last time I 'died' was while I was awake. I was playing that game, Conker:Live and Reloaded, and my cute little ninja-anthro-chibi-squriel with a potty mouth was set on fire by a passing evil teddy bear with a flamethrower. Now, for that annoying story-within-a-story, I used to be terrified of Game Over screens. It was just so shocking and depressing to me. It's like showing a young child a video of a cesarean-section when so far all he's been told about is the stork. Although that doesn't really apply to me because I was fascinated by that particular video. But frightened of losing all my lives. Around this time, I'd gotten over that fear and found comfort in cheat codes to avoid that horribly nostalgic sensation in older games. But that cute little ninja squirell's wrenching screams and pleads to be put out struck a chord of some kind. It was that odd stillness and faint feeling of vulnerability. The dull ache of fading wounds. A surrender. Death.

Of course I just kept playing, outwardly acting like nothing happened, but in the back of my head I was feeling shocked, weirded out, and maybe a little frightened, as that age old fear of game over screens haunted me.

The last time I died in a dream was far less serious. I was around seven, and had a dream where I was being held down to my aunt's bed and dismembered by pirates for stealing and eating a bannana without asking. My arms and legs wouldn't work properly for several days, and they ached slightly.

But this dream...this dream was entirely plausible. It was gritty. It was merciless. It was realistic. It could happen.

I tested my muscles, stretching, acutely aware of my body and how vulnerable I was. After waking up from a dream like that I can imagine it's like rising from the dead.

I immediately silenced the obligatory thought that I could compare it to becoming a vampire, and shook myself out of my thoughts. I immediately regretted it, as my vision blurred and a pounding headache made itself known.

I groaned, remembering why I would have a headache this horrible, other than the fact that it's almost a requirement in these sort of situations.

I reached up to feel my head, fully expecting to find a piece of my skull missing, and then sit there for hours experimentally poking my brain, giggling like an idiot everytime I twitched or started spouting nonsense because I finally dug around deep enough to hit the speech centers.

I jumped slightly when I felt soft cotton instead of gory brainsludge. My head was wrapped...

"Welcome to the world of the living. Did you enjoy your nap?" Someone greeted airily from behind me.

I recognized the irony of that statement and couldn't help but break out into a grin.

"I...I suppose..." I mumbled, not willing to roll over, for fear of my skull splitting open and my brain flopping out, like a drunk person getting out of a car. I was still kind of dizzy...

_'What's with you and your obsession with brains? I thought you were over the whole zombie thing. It was bad enough when you thought that Avon released the T-virus...'_

"You know, you nearly had your skull cracked open."

See? Told you.

_'Told me what?'_

I dunno. I just wanted to say that.

"I'm surprised you're even awake right now. Normally, you'd still be asleep for another day or two." I heard rustling behind me, as they moved themself in front of me.

That 'deer in the headlights' feeling gripped me. I knew who this was. I just wondered if she knew who _I_ was.

She smiled down at me. "But I suppose you were always more resilant than that..."

I felt my right eye twitch. My mind was reeling. My jaw went slack. _'I bet your eyes are bugging out of your skull right now. Wait, isn't she suppos- ...holy crap.' _

She's not supposed to be here. I can't be seeing her. She shouldn't exist.

Unless...

_'Did you finally end up in the asylum?'_

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A/N: That dream I stuck in the middle there? Yep. It happened. I still have a small bruise in my chest. I was seriously freaked out when I woke up from it.

I know this was a little short, but if I would have continued, it would be going on FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER ...you get the point.

I have a very good idea where this is going now, so you'll see it in the coming weeks.

See you then!


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Thanks to all of my super awesome bunch-of-fluffy-pet-names reviewers! I'm sorry for the update time (AGAIN! *facepalm*). That wasn't exactly 'sooner' was it? Nor was it a lot longer...

I do realize that now we have one o' dem new-fangled space age contraptions called one of dem dere 'Revew Response' dealies, but I'd rather reply in the fiction itself. I get a nice little fuzzy warm and giddy feeling being mentioned on a public webpage, and I just want to spread the love. Rants and such at the bottom.

Nameless Daydreamer: DONE! XD

Azura Soul Reaver: Well, both A and C. You'll see.

Tonnere: Well, good! That's the point! My work here is done... ^_^

Fatala: Go for it! Lemme know if you want my help, and I'll rough him up for you! *grins at the fanged jolly green giant* Oh, yes. Mweheheh.

Niana Kuonji: Yay! I'm not the only insane one! Many thanks for your patience. You can stop sitting, I'm sure your butt hurts by now. Thanks for the concern, updates on the moochers and such at the end note.

Morganna Venus Persephone: Heheh, blasts of nostalgia are the best. I'm afraid I'm more of the type to torture people when it comes to actually getting to the main parts, so I'm just going to hit and run untill I feel comfortable handling established characters. Frankly, I'm sure I can get thier style of speaking right, but getting them to act individually without my influence is the hard part.

Eternal grattitude to my reviewers. Every time my review button is pushed, an angel doesn't get eaten by my cat, and I get to have awesome fuzzy feelings.

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_'You must be imagining things. That can't be the exact same person.'_

I focused my vision, taking in her sharp, earthly and yet alien features. It couldn't be.

_'Aheh...well, you did just get a concussion. This must be some kind of morphine induced hallucination. Anytime now you're going to wake up in the hospital, strapped to the bed, and they're going to cart you off to the mental institution...'_

She smiled again, a matronly, amused, _knowing_, smile. I didn't like the look in her eyes. That mysterious bruise on my chest throbbed as my heart jumped. I didn't want to believe it.

"I don't suppose you know me. But I know much about you, Victoria." She intoned in her foreign accent. I briefly wondered what sort of language her race originally spoke.

_'OH MY GOD SHE KNOWS YOUR NAME!'_

"I am-"

'_Please don't be what I think it is.'_

"The seer."

_'Holy lovechild of raptorjesus and the great flying spaghetti monster...'_

My eyes went wide, and I was internally freaking out. I would have probably had a heart attack.

What I would have really wanted to say was something along the lines of unintelligable screaming, but instead, I took a deep breath, and came out with:

"Do...do you have a name?" I weakly inquired.

_'Wow. That was LAME! Why would you say something like that at a time like this!'_

Well, can you think of anything better, genius?!

She chuckled. "My name is of no concern to you." She stood from her kneeling position, and walked behind me, dead leaves and forest debris crunching beneath her oddly formed feet. "But enough about that. Can you sit up?"

"I dunno." I mumbled, and tried to pull myself up. I was hit with a sudden vertigo, and immidiately flopped back down onto the makeshift bed. I closed my eyes against the headache and the world's refusal to stop spinning. I felt my stomach threaten to crawl up my throat.

She chuckled again. "That's a no then. You should be recovered in a few hours, tomorrow at worst."

I heard the sudden rush of flames bursting into life, noisily consuming whatever was in it's grasp. I didn't know she could summon flame... "Although you can not stay here for very long. So whatever it is you like to do to speed up the healing process, I reccomend you do it."

I inwardly groaned at the thought of more walking and/or running. I'd had enough of travelling.

_'Heck, by now you've probably used all of your frequent flyer miles and then some...'_

"What's going on? What's after me?" I murmured, curious.

"What are you babbling about now?" Someone snapped groggily from behind me. I flinched as I realized this wasn't the seer I was talking to. I carefully rolled onto my back, and surveyed the area. She was gone. I was apparently in a makeshift camp of some sort.

"Huh. That's odd. I didn't think the fire would make it through the night..." There was a young woman, probably a few years older than me, across the fire from me. She looked vaugely familiar.

"Oh hey, you're awake." She observed in the middle of a yawn. "You kept on talking in your sleep."

I felt rather embarased. I never really talked in my sleep before.

"Wha...did I... say anything weird?"

_'Oh god, I hope I didn't start giving away my personal thoughts. But then again if I did, she might have either killed me or run off by now...'_

She stretched, popping several joints, before standing up from the tree she had been resting against. "Not really. Unless you count mumbling in ancient tounges as weird."

_'Oh shit. This is really going off the effing rocker for me.'_

"But I suppose a concussion can do that to you. How are you? Can you move?" She asked, making her way toward me.

"I'm as good as I can be at the moment." I vocally shrugged.

"Shit?" She bluntly asked.

"What?" My mind kind of flopped over, presented with this bizarre idea of the word 'shit' being posed as a valid question. It was something that just outright refuses to make sense. I was caught off guard that she would actually say it too. I live in the mddle of the bible belt, so it's rare to hear other people cursing like that. Being from New York, I was all too familiar with it.

"You feel like shit, right?" She elaborated, rather frankly.

_'Oh.'_ "Yeah." I sighed. I closed my eyes again. I just wanted to sleep. Preferably without getting killed in my dreams. I was still kind of ashamed of my stupidity. I had flinched, and they saw me. I idly wondered what the heck those things were. I wasn't able to distingush a face, or a gender from the memory.

I was jolted out of my doze by a sudden sharp pain on my forehead. I tried to close my eyes again, but it continued. I eventually couldn't stand it, and looked up, thinking that maybe I was being pelted with acorns by a disgruntled squirrel. The woman was sitting next to me, flicking my head.

"Don't fall asleep. We have to get moving soon." She smiled.

I quirked an eyebrow. "Who are you? I feel like I should know you."

She shook her head, still smirking. "My apologies. If I had remembered where I had put my ration of manners, I would have suggested we deal with pleasantries, nay? I am Adonathiel, inamorata of the chimerical prognosticators, crafter of fine phylactery, and hunter of the malevolent and clandestine. Pleased to meet you, miss...?"

I just lay there, gaping like a suffocating fish.

_'OHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT-'_

This can't be it. It just can't.

"Are you okay?"

My mind was racing. I scrounged up an answer. "I'm Vi- uh, um ...Andraste." I fumbled, pulling out a random name from my memory. Good enough, I suppose.

_'OH MY GOD. WHAT THE HELL. I'm dead. I died. Now my mind is in it's last death throes, giving me the hallucination of a lifetime. Yep. My brain DID fall out of my skull. Nice knowing you. Victoria has left the building.'_

I was still dumbstruck, staring at her smiling face. She DID fit the bill. Long, tightly curled hair tumbled about her shoulders and back, in a deep shimmering copper, about the same shade of mine if I had gone outside more often. Rich green cloak, dirtied from frequent use in the outdoors, with a VERY familiar pin to hold it about her shoulders. A knee-length red skirt, pinned up on one side to create a rippled curtain effect (as well as allowing more freedom of movement), with dark brown leggings underneath. A short-sleeved soft leather top, with decorative patterns pressed into the collar. She wore no shoes or footwear of any kind. Her face was soft and kind, but that maddened grin was rather unnerving.

This was one of my characters.

_'If she finds out that I was the one responsible for her life so far, she would kill me. No, worse. She'd probably just turn me inside out, and THEN kill me. But not before leaving me to simmer in the demon dimension for a day.'_

She nodded and smirked with that 'yeah, sure' kind of look. I was never a good liar. Not only that, but if she's the same Adonathiel, then she already at the very least has an inkling of who I am. And what I am.

She leaned over my head and dragged over a small bag, it's contents making any number of interesting sounds. I think there might have been a small animal in there.

"It's not often that people end up coming through..." She idly remarked, rummmaging through the sack.

"Through where?" I had a shit-ton of questions, most of them cliche'd, some of them ridiculous, and about three perfectly rational ones.

"The valley. Some strange things have been coming from there lately. All manner of demons and odd creatures." She grinned as she pulled an amulet from her bag. "Imagine my surprise when a flying serpent crashed into my woods, with you in it's claws. Here. Put this on, and you'll be alright until we can find another place to stay."

I took the elaborate disk in my hands, and suspisiously examined it. It looked absolutely frightening, the face of a snarling..._creature_ leering out of the back bordered by archane symbols, as the other side was delicately carved into several rings of complex, and possibly ancient scriptures. Artistically speaking, it was an absolutely stunning composition. Museums would commit genocide for these kinds of things. But knowing that it was magically imbued, and what this woman was capable of, is what made me hesitant to hang the amulet around my throat.

_'If she's the same woman that you wrote about, she wouldn't kill you. She may be mildly insane, but she isn't into senseless killing. I haven't given her a reason to hate you yet.'_

She huffed, noticing my intense scrutiny of the amulet. "Just put it on. It's not going to kill you. I may be mildly insane, but I don't get my jollies from senselessly killing innocent people. You haven't given me a reason to hate you yet."

Wide eyed and seriously freaked out, I slipped the chain over my head without further hesitation.

She grinned. "Good. I thought I might have to knock some sense into you."

_'Oh my god...'_

If I ever got out of this extreme hallucination alive, I'd need some serious therapy. Y'know what? I already needed thrapy before all this happened. I'd probably be taken out back and shot like a retarded doberman. ...Was I doing drugs?

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A/N: Next chapter will probably focus on character development, because Adonathiel's history is all laid out, but her personality isn't. She'll end up like the wild card that she is, I suppose.

My excuse THIS TIME...is depression. Yeah. I spent at least a week living in a bathtub, for lack of anywhere better to hide (my tree got infested with these giant ants, and I won't be able to stay there until it gets colder). I couldn't do ANYTHING creative, and I'm still kind of confused about it. Hopefully I can still get into my little writing groove without thinking about it too much.

Because of this, I've unnofficially dropped out of the project. I haven't done a damn thing since I was commissioned nearly five months ago, and that fact is doing nothing for my morale. If I can finally get my butt into gear, and get past the awkward, tense conversations that will sure to follow, hopefully we can get this thing _started_.

As for the moochers, we've succesfully purged the cretins from our domain, we didn't get infected, and we're still poor as shit. So long as we choose our next steps carefully, we should be alright. We've picked up another housemate (who has been our friend for a while, rather than just a 'random good deed' for people we barely know) who can actually help with the bills and such, and he's also helping out with some other plans of ours. Mweheheh. *evil plotting face*


	6. Chapter 6

A/N: Herro! ^_^ *is feeling especially chipper* I managed to grind out this latest chapter in record time! I now owe my eighth grade english teacher my undying thanks. I'm STILL using her hand-crafted handbook (It's still incredibly useful, like listing symbolisms, archetypes, a million alternatives to 'said', and buttloads of tone words). I had to leaf through it a couple of times, because I noticed that the quality kind of dropped. Hopefully that will be remedied in the next few chapters. Review resposes at the bottom.

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I remember a friend of mine attempting to cure a headache with minor magic. He was pretty good at it too. The fact that it worked only drove me to keep looking for the 'other side'. I remeber distinctly how the focused energy felt. It was a faint, pleasant, buzzing sensation, as if my entire body fell asleep.

But this was entirely different. As soon as the amulet had settled, I felt like I got freakin' electrocuted.

_'Don't taze me bro! Don't taze me! Don't- AAAAGH!'_ My brain mindlessly quoted.

I twitched violently from the sudden bolt of sensation shooting up my spine, and having lost proper muscle control, flopped back over onto the blanket. My limbs locked, and I couldn't move. I wanted to say something along the lines of 'OH MY GOD WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!', but it came out more like: "Nnnghrgh!"

Adonathiel looked slightly concerned. "Hm. I think I might have done that wrong." She mumbled, leaning in closer to squint at the amulet.

I looked at her like she had just sprouted a pair of horns. Was I really going to trust this obvious psycopath?

_'Wait, are those...?'_

Had I been capable, I'm sure my eyes would have fallen out of thier sockets. _Actual horns_ were twisting out of her skull.

_'Please let this just be another hallucination.'_ I mentally prayed, watching everything around me bend in on itself.

She straightened up and smiled, which soon warped into a maddened, demonic looking grin. Her eyes bled completely red. She spoke something, but her smooth, low tones were distorted into a deep, bellowing screech. She lifted her hand towards me, tipped with wicked looking, serrated talons. Wide eyed, I could only watch as she sunk her fingers into my throat.

As soon as her claws left my bleeding flesh, the world snapped back to it's original state.

Adonathiel's hand retreated from my throat, ripping the amulet away from me, rather than my windpipe.

I sat up, still startled and disoriented from the sudden change in scenery, and scrambled backwards into the tree behind me. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?!" I bellowed, whipping my head around like a startled ferret.

Adonathiel was completely absorbed in closely examining the amulet for faults. "What's wrong with you?" She idly asked me, squinting at the demonic face. "You look like you just saw-...oh. That's what happened." She finished quietly, scratching off several symbols.

"What in gods name did you _do_?!" I screeched from my corner, still expecting a demon or something to drop on me ninja style and start gnawing on my skull. Like a zombie. Zombie-ninja-demon.

"Shush!" She hissed, packing away the re-worked amulet into her bag. "You do realize there could be Sarafan patrolling these woods? The last thing we want is for them to find us! Now as to what you saw. I had originally used that amulet as a stablizer for my magic, particularly concerning energy from different planes. I had stolen it from a planar, you see. I had also used it for healing magic. But, I may have forgotten about it's dual nature, and what you saw was a completely different dimension. My apologies." She explained.

_'Wait, Sarafan?!'_

"What are you, crazy?!"

"Why yes, I believe I've been called that before. But at the very least it worked." She pointed out.

I looked down at myself and realized for the first time that I was completely healed. I was too busy panicking over zombie ninja demons to notice. Even the deep cuts that the...whatever-the-heck-it-was had dug down my sides were gone. "Wow..."

"A simple 'thank you' will suffice." She sighed, gathering up the remains of the camp.

I always felt awkward saying my pleases and thanks. Not because I didn't like saying it. But because I said them a lot. I always had the strange feeling that saying those same phrases more than 10 times a day were annoying to people. So I usually attempted to mix it up every once in a while.

"You have my undying grattitude." I smiled sincerely, briefly busting out with the british accent.

Adonathiel raised an eyebrow, before bending into an extravagant bow. She even managed to do the little hand flourish. "I am much obliged." She played along and giggled.

-----------------

It was peacably quiet, the companionable silence adding to the din of nothingness around us, save for the ocaisional chattering of the foliage whenever the gentle breeze floated by. It was that silent, peaceful part of the early morning, where everything was stained a misty blue and vibrant gold from the light of the emerging sun.

I was a nature person by heart, and was still overwhelmed by the sheer size of the forest. Living in a city for most of my life, and then moving to the country (where forests were beginning to dissapear amidst housing developments and malls) I'd never experianced a forest that was this 'complete'. I felt like the trees had swallowed me whole. We'd been walking for hours, and still no sign of a break in the treeline.

A question that had been bugging me since I woke up was especially nagging when it was this quiet. I was reluctant to break the silence though, mostly because it was always hard to fix it afterwards.

_'Just ask the damned question. It's been several hours, and you have a right to know.'_

"Hey," I started hesitantly.

"Hm? What's that?" she absently replied.

"Um...where _are_ we?" I wondered, fully realizing that I had absolutely no idea where I was.

She glanced over her shoulder, this _look_ in her eye."You'll see."

I wasn't too fond of half-answers, or being left in the dark. Sure, I had the patience to 'wait and see', but I hated being completely ignorant.

"Well, can I at least know where we're going?" I insisted, bent on getting some kind of information.

"You'll see." I could hear the mild amusment in her voice.

_'I hope to god she's not messing with you. You might as well have a mental breakdown now if even the incredibly smart lunatic doesn't know what she's doing.'_

I paused and frowned. "Is that all you can say?" I pleaded, a little bit of a whine creeping into my voice. I was starting to worry.

Adonathiel grinned from over her shoulder. "You'll see." She chuckled, and continued walking.

_'I don't know if I should be laughing, or if I should start fearing for my life.'_

I settled for a nervous giggle, uncontrollably smiling from the tension.

-------------------------

Sure enough, after about one more hour of walking (or in my case, panicking), we finally emerged from the forest into a large field.

Relieved that I could finally see the sky, I took a deep breath and stretched. It felt like forever since I smelt something other than black earth and rich plantlife. One thing was for sure: I wasn't going to eat any vegetables for quite a while after this. I was a special kind of nature person. You know, 'plants are friends, not food'. But only because it allows me to maintain my carnivorous habits. By then, it would have made my day if I happened to come across a calf that got trapped in a fence.

_'Veal stew anyone?'_

"There." Adonathiel sighed, staring off into the distance.

"Huh?"

"The answer to your question." She smiled and nodded towards the horizon, prompting me to look.

The feeling that rose in my chest at the sight nearly made me drop to my knees and weep. At the moment, I couldn't find any words that were epic enough to express the sheer epicness of the epic sight.

I took in a shuddering breath, and asked: "...is it really...?"

Adonathiel was still smiling. "Nosgoth."

My eyes wide with wonderment, my breath held in my throat, I allowed a little overwhelmed whine to escape me. Just over the trees, maybe a mile or two away, the Pillars of Nosgoth stood, insulting the early afternoon sun with it's supreme height.

The excitement slowly built, and by that point, I could no longer hold my breath.

"WHOOOOOOO!" I abruptly hollered, and in my excitement, immeadiately set out to do the most epic happy dance in my entire life, which included some variations of the caramell dance, and rolling around on the ground a few times, which morphed into that Homer Simpson spin move. If I knew gymnastics, it would have been even better.

Finally out of breath, I did one last thing to commemorate this epic occasion. I got down on one knee, clasped my hands together, and did something I thought I would never sincerely do in my entire life.

_I prayed._

"Ahem. Our pasta, who art in a colander, draining be your noodles. Thy noodles done, thy sauce be yum, on top of some grated parmesean. Give us this day our garlic bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trample on our lawns. Deliver us not into vegetarianism, but deliver us instead, a pizza. For yours is the meat, the onion, and the bay leaves, R'Amen!"

Satisfied, I plopped onto my tuff for a well deserved break.

Okay, so it's wasn't all _that _serious. But hey, such an epic act of random teleportation into a world that doesn't exist can only be the work of an invisible flying spaghetti monster, right? If there was anything to make me believe that the flying pasta monster had created all life, it would be this.

_'I'm buying a pirate hat and converting to pastafarianism once this whole thing is over.'_

Once this is over. I shrugged off that creeping thought that I might never get home at all. I'd save that for another time.

I had this weird smile that I had whenever I was really excited about something. I was still kind of giddy, and stowed away that little 'reality check' for later. For now, I'd try to enjoy myself.

I looked to Adonathiel, who was watching me from a distance.

_'Wait, did she just step back?'_

She was actually cautious of me.

_'The day the biggest lunatic in the world becomes wary of __**you**__, is the day that you've totally lost it. Congratulations, you are now qualified as a level 51 eccentric. Now it's perfectly acceptable for you to go streaking at sports events. And by sports events, I mean book clubs.'_

What happened to levels 15-50?

_'Oh, you completely bypassed them.'_

She had this surprised, kind of lost look on her face. She truly wasn't expecting me to go crazy like that.

"What?" I threw over my shoulder, still smirking a little. I refused to be embarrassed by my display of excitement. I was completely entitled to it, after all.

She furrowed her brows. "If I'm insane...what does that make you?" she mused, smirking.

I shrugged. "Well, if my experiances are anything to go by, -which they aren't- sane and insane don't exist." I explained.

She walked over to join me on the grass. "Oh really? Well, what does that make us, if not sane, insane, or in your case, completely psycotic?" She asked, amused.

I grinned wildly, a chuckle creeping up my throat. I stifled my giggles. "We're all just -*snerk*... **a different flavor of nuts**!" I sputtered, breaking out into laughter at my own little joke. Adonathiel couldn't help herself either, and started tittering.

_'...Make that Level 50. You're too corny to be a Level 51.'_

Mean. Go suck on a cob, why don't you.

_'__**Shuck you.**__'_

Adonathiel pulled some lunch from her bag, and we snacked on some corn, the reassuring figure of the guardian Pillars overlooking the land.

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A/N: Not much in terms of plot movement, but at least we're out of that damned clearing (It feels like I've been ther forever). Next chapter should set us on a specific goal, as well as smooth over some inconsistencies I made for myself. Keep in mind, I'm attempting to keep this story 'loose', so that I don't nitpick it to death like I usually would. So if it _isn't_ confusing, I'm not doing it right. :D

Azura Soul Reaver: Thankies! Yeah, well, we're those kind of people who are too nice to do something like just kick em' out. It isn't in our nature to put them out onto the street after taking them in, especially if they have no one else to live with. So we waited patiently, and they made thier own excuses to leave. They left, and we weren't pegged as the bad guys, so they didn't feel obligated to take our stuff with them. It's a win-win, and not only that, but now I have a legitimate reason to keep on killing them in my writing. :3

Morganna Venus Persephone: Many thanks for the support! Obviously, you've got some damned good muses on your hands. ^_^ Mweheheh, yeah, I'm evil like that. But like I said, it's going to be hit and run until I get a feel for them. But don't worry, she'll be popping up every once in a while to scare the crap out of me.

Tonnere: Well, I doubt Kain would have any use for her now, since he has the chronoplast, and I don't think I'm ready to handle him just yet. Just you wait. I'll get him soon. *grins in his direction*

Namless Daydreamer: *gasp*! You're not completely confused yet?! Then I'm not doing my job right! *breaks out the rubber chicken brigade*

Fatala: Well, the good news is, it's clear. It's just not cold enough to warrant going outside in my pajamas yet. :3 Let's hope the snowlessness continues. I want to be able to wear my slippers for the entire year again. XD I'm glad that I can be of some help!

The fuzzy high continues! Thanks to my extra-special super-duper reviewers! YOU MAKE MY HEART FEEL SUPER HAPPY. GRAAAGHWR! (and Nick Jr's subliminal brain washing through children's programming is now compleeeeeat.)


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: Woot! I broke my record! Not only that, but I'm sure I've got at least another half of a chapter in my head. Expect another update VERY soon. ^_^

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After our little break, we continued heading west, towards the pillars. I took the oppourtunity to sate my curiosity. The past few hours not only didn't give me any answers, but it only gave me time to think of a million more.

"*ahem*" I got my traveling companion's attention. "You still didn't answer my question from earlier."

"Refresh my memory." She drawled, keeping her eyes to the distance.

It felt like one of those lazy afternoons. Like we should have been lying in the grass, looking at the clouds rather than walking for several miles. Lord knows I wanted to just stop and take a nap. I wasn't the most active of people, but several years of paranoia and fantasy based scenario training told me that we had to go as far as we could before night-fall. Not only that, but having access to information about Nosgoth itself made me feel a whole lot more sure of myself.

Being that we were east of the Pillars, we were most likely heading from the forests around the Termogent, which would explain why it took half the day to finally get out. If that creature that carried me over the forest from the 'valley', the most likely place would be from somewhere around northern Avernus, which would make sense. The only thing I needed to know was...

"_Where _are we _going_?" I asked. I wasn't going to let her dodge it this time.

She yawned. "Oh. We're going to Steinchenchroe."

"Ah." I knew who she was going to see. (It feels weird to say this), but when I created her, I made sure she had made friends in 'high' places. Being the ambassador of all crazies, she was naturally friends with the local madman, Irmok.

I felt awkward, recalling the fact that she was my creation. And the way that I made her, the way her life had played out in those brief paragraphs back on my laptop, I wouldn't be surprised if she already knew.

It really started to nag me, not knowing whether or not _she_ knew.

I edged around the question. I had my eyes on her, and she seemed to look at me a fraction of a second before I started speaking.

"I-um, feel like...I feel like I've known you- ...for a really long time." I blurted out. I was never any good at anything but the blunt, direct truth, and anything else was a poor attempt indeed. I was like a literal version of Pinnochio. Unless I really had to, I could never tell a lie, or pussyfoot around a subject. The only thing that kept me from being a bit of a sassy, rough person, was my strong sense of modesty and ingrained politeness.

_'Smooth.'_

"Well, that isn't a surprise, is it?" she said flatly.

"Huh?" I feigned ignorance.

She stopped, and looked me in the eyes. Her intense stare gave me the urge to start fidgeting. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, _Victoria Elizabeth_. Or do you prefer _Chocolate Thun-Da_?" She was smirking now, as she walked on.

I lagged behind, a twisted, suppressed grin of fright, nervousness, and embarrasment haunting my expression. My scrunched face probably gave the impression of a scowling child.

Suffice it to say, I was freaking scared.

I didn't nesseccarilly create her, but it was more like I discovered her. She'd always been a part of me. Had always been in my writing. The only reason I had actually managed to 'catch' her, was because I solidified her as a character for an LOK RP. In her brief little stint, all she managed to do was establish herself as a dangerously crazy person, kill one of Vorador's birds, and maybe fight off a few zombies. I had dissapeared from the internet then, and so the little party moved on without her.

But looking back on all of my other short stories, I kept on finding her, over and over again. The kindly old woman Ada who had taken care of me and my little sister during my first 'adventure' in Nosgoth. A little bit of her manifested in Aysu, one of my Rahabim characters that would be one of my best friends whenever I visited the abbey or the sanctuary. She would have been the mysterious enchantress of old who had come from our own world, perhaps the otherworldy connection as a muse giving birth to the series. She was the little slave-girl Aderyn, who's soul I had used to forge my imaginary lands. She also manifested as my author powers in my later adventures, after I had been travelling to other worlds and gained experiance. She especially showed her hand when I had returned to a previous point in my past, nearly creating a paradox by colliding with myself. It often scared me that this presence was in my writing, uncontrolled, allowed to guide or thwart my actions however it pleased.

With this, a new revelation bloomed in my mind.

She was the very embodiment of Deus Ex Machina. Even her name 'Adonathiel', the rejected name of the fallen Balance Guardian, suggested that she was not really there. She was something that could not be destroyed or forgotten. She was untouchable.

And the scariest part of all...

_**...is that she was within my very mind.**_

I still cannot figure out if she _is_ me, or a part of me that became aware and took it's own form. If the latter was true, than my Dad was right in his fears that if I tried hard enough, I _could_ become the equivalent of the Elder God. All-seeing and omnipresent. Here and everywhere. Now and always. Capable of shaping the world to my every whim with just a thought.

But there was just one problem.

I was never one to create a 'god-modded' character. There had to be something to balance her out.

So I made her insane, and her magic pure FUBAR. She knew everything. Had second, third, and even _fourth_ sight. Knew nearly everything as if she was the one that had made it. But she could do nothing but watch as the world around her spiraled into it's fate.

She was the opposite of Raziel, in the sense that she had free will. But unlike Raziel, she knew her fate. She knew what was to happen to Nosgoth. She knew the fate of every single blessed thing in the land, and how it would affect the grand scheme. And unlike Raziel, she could not influence these events. She couldn't change a damned thing.

She didn't even want anything to do with the perpetual war waged on Nosgoth.

"We'll be stopping soon." She informed me.

I briefly stumbled, having been snapped out of my thoughts.

Adonathiel giggled.

"Oh shutup." I jabbed playfully.

"I didn't say anything..." She rolled her eyes and smiled.

I wasn't really paying attention. I was doing the 'Zombie walk', something I would do to keep my mind away from my legs and how tired they must be.

While I was zonked out, the sky had turned an enchanting amethyst, and we were extremely close to the Pillars, which looked even more majestic (and incredibly intimidating) the closer we got.

---------------------------------

I did another miniature happy dance, as we broke through the trees that circled the Pillars. It was even grander than I imagined. The gold and marble remained polished and magnificent, despite it's age, reflecting and radiating the red light from the setting sun.

"Would you like to get closer?" Adonathiel offered.

"Do you have to ask?" I squeeked, nearly running up to it's base.

I stilled at the steps of the base, hesitating to step foot on (what felt like) hallowed ground. This was a defining moment. Not just for me, but for Legacy Of Kain fans everywhere.

If and when I got back, this would make the most epic fanfiction ever (since nobody would believe me, and I was never one to carry around a camera). Although if I ever included all of the times I've passed out, it would seem like lazy storytelling. By then I would have forgotten most of it.

Except this. I would definately never forget this, I promised myself.

I held my breath, and slowly, gently lowered a muddy sneaker onto the first, pure marble step.

_'They should have a doormat here. I feel like I should have wiped my feet first.'_

I slowly, meaningfully walked along the branch of marble, carefully stepping over the gold edges.

As soon as I was fully on the platform, standing before the Pillar of Balance, it's brothers standing beside it like a circle of higher beings, as if they were judging me, judging the world with thier ultimate purity, I let my breath go.

An odd, sluggish, tense sort of energy crawled up my spine, painfully slow, making me shudder for a full minute. I could do nothing but stand and shake, staring up at the Pillars, reaching eternally, feeling for all the world like a small child. No, even smaller. Completely insignificant.

Staring at the stars on a clear night might have made one feel like a speck of dust, but they were not reachable. You couldn't just walk up and touch them. The stars weren't as _real_ as this.

They weren't as..._glorious_. _Momentous._ _Awe inspiring._

A bunch of other words that the american standard thesaurus probably didn't have.

The crushing weight of 'I Am Not Worthy' bore down on me, and I could stand it no longer.

I dropped to my knees, and bowed to the mighty Pillars.

It felt like the right thing to do.

Having gathered my nerve, crawling, I tentatively, gently, oh so softly, ran my fingertips over the smooth stone of the Pillar of Balance.

I felt it's undying power wash though me like a powerful gust of wind. The cacophany died down into a soothing hum, and I slowly withdrew my hand, the absence of it's warmth leaving me chilled, as I let go of my breath that I had unconciously held for a second time.

After a time, I slowly got up and backed away, stumbling off the platform, not daring to get any closer.

My feet felt like they were burning.

_'...I...touched...Balance...'_ I thought, awestruck.

I stared at my hands, truly amazed that I did something like that. I looked back at the towering monument, an indescribable sense of kinship with these ancient guardians tugged at my being.

A single tear traced it's path down my cheek. I now lived for it. And it lived for me.

Adonathiel moved to put a hand on my shoulder, but stopped, and withdrew.

"You, girl. Are far braver than I." She breathed, a new respect for me shown in her eyes.

I shook, still overwhelmed.

-----------------------------------------

I stared blankly at the fire, watching it turn colors as my eyesight protested to the abuse.

I was still feeling...odd.

"Are you well?" Adonathiel asked, handing me my piece of cooked meat.

I inhaled deeply, having paid too much attention to my breathing, and manually regulating it had occupied me while my mind had remained eerily silent.

"I'll get over it." I sighed, mindlessly chewing on the meat, never taking my eyes off the fire. I didn't quite care what kind of meat it was. I was a carnivore by nature, and was willing to try any kind of flesh. I was fully prepared to eat just about anything, so long as it wasn't rotted.

This was kind of chewy, and had a vauge taste that lingered after I had finished. It satisfied my hunger, and that's all that I cared.

The fire was extinguished for the night, so that it wouldn't attract animals, bandits, or Sarafan soilders, and we settled for the night. Adonathiel lent me her blanket, and she had wrapped herself in her long cloak.

I couldn't sleep for quite a while, watching the full moon slowly pass overhead. The pure, silver disc was far larger than I'd ever seen it, and I basked in it's bright glow.

Exhaustion finally took me, and forced my eyes closed, settling comfortably into my makeshift bed of leaves.

***CLANK***

***THUNK***

My eyes snapped open, and I silently thanked my father for his genetic night vision. With the moon as it was, it looked nearly like broad daylight, if I had large sunglasses on.

My eyes widened, and I stopped breathing.

There, standing over the extinguished fire, Adonathiel grappled with an armored knight.

His sword was lodged in a nearby tree, as she was quick to disarm him, and now she stood, hands locked with the soilder, one attempting to overpower the other.

They both stared at eachother, evaluating thier foe. One with a blank gaze of steel, the other with luminecent, earthen fires.

Adonathiel looked toward me for a split second, having noticed my awareness.

That fraction of inattentiveness was all he needed, and with a powerful heave, threw her aside, knocking her head against a tree, rendering her dazed and nearly unconcious.

He yanked his blade from the wood, and rose it, prepared to deal the final blow.

A sudden wave of adrenaline made my limbs as light as feathers, as powerful as a wildcat. In a moment of absolute instinct, I rushed at him, a hand in my pocket.

Reaching up, I quickly pulled his head back, and plunged my flipknife, still stained with the dried blood of my previous attacker, into his throat, and dug it deep behind his collarbone, violently sawing and jerking.

Gurgling, he threw me aside, where I landed harmlessly in the ashes of the fire.

His blood flowing and running across the plates of his armor gave them a glowing crimson tint. Hell knight.

Strength waning from bloodloss, he sloppily swung at me, giving me a deep gash on my arm, before tripping over his own boots and falling to the ground, his sword flung away from him.

I watched him in his last death throes, a morbid curiosity keeping me from completely realizing the situation.

It hadn't caught up with me yet.

Twitching and gurgling, I was reminded of the boy in Afghanistan I think, who had split his face open. It was disturbing footage indeed, and made me painfully aware of my face and just how fragile it was.

Wheezing, he finally stilled, and I stared at the grim sight for a few minutes more. I was thankful that he had managed to keep his helmet on. I wouldn't have had the stomach to see his face.

Ignoring my injury, oblivious to the pain, I dragged myself back to bed, the only thing on my mind was rest.

I would save the horrible realizations of my deeds for the morrow.

________________________________

A/N: You guys are the best. Mostly beacuse I'll never believe my close relations if they say it's good.

Namless Daydreamer: HeeHee, yeah. I was in a silly mood. ^_^

Tonnerre: YES! *does slightly less epic happy dance* I love it when I make someone's ...moment. :D

Morganna Venus Persephone: Well, they've done a bang-up job! I'm sending them home with extra treats, and I wish you the best on your new fiction. (It was a damned cool start, and I can't wait for the next one.) Yeeeee! *titters like an idiot* I made someone laugh! The Giant Flying Spaghetii Monster is a pretty fast growing religion, and it's very popular amongst athiests (TeeHee!). You should probably check out thier website, it's damn hilarious. It wasn't nessecarilly a happy dance, but more of a dancing of souls or something like that. Anyway, it was still epic (I hope).


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